GALILEE! Part Two

Second (and last) part of my Galilee adventures...

FRIDAY: Mt. Tabor, one of the traditional sites for the Mt. of Transfiguration (my professors actually think it is more likely to be Mt. Hermon considering it is much closer to Caesarea Philppi, but this place is pretty too)

Swimming hole at Gan Ha-Shelosha; the traditional place where Gideon had his men drink from this pool and  narrowed down his army to 300 by the manner in which they lapped up the water to their mouths. Don't worry, we didn't drink this water...its not as clean as it used to be. 

SATURDAY: Sabbath at the Galilee Branch Meetinghouse in Tiberias. It is actually a renovated home so it was pretty small (we had to have two separate meeting times for the students) but it was so cute and quaint and it had a fantastic view. The whole back wall of the chapel is windows overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Maybe my favorite Sabbath since I've been here.

Me and my roomies during the Galilee field trip on the roof of the meetinghouse-- Jessica, Heather, and Aly

SUNDAY: Visit to the Jordan River (one of the few traditional baptismal sites for Jesus' baptism) 

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach playing a little ultimate frisbee and soaking up the sun.

MONDAY: Here we are at the watchtower in Hazor in the exact place where the Israelites watched the Assyrians invade and crush their city around 700 BCE (wow...this is what the Jerusalem Center has made me become...a NERD)

Tel Dan; anciently and present-day most northern city of Israel. The walk through the nature reserve was a total blast from the past...it was like I was walking through Maryland's Rock State Park. Green and trees EVERYWHERE! It was beautiful. This is the exact point where the Dan River comes out of the mountain. The water comes out of this spring, through the River Dan, joins up with two other rivers to form the Jordan River, flows through the Sea of Galilee and then follows the rest of the Jordan River until the Dead Sea.

TUESDAY: After visiting a few more cities in Galilee (like Chorazin and Sepphoris) we spent the rest of the day in Old Akko, a port city on the coast of the Mediterranean. The day's activities didn't go quite as planned and it was a bit stressful for our professors (because of unexpected entrance fees and different hours for sites) but it turned out to be a very much needed low-key day. We stayed in Akko longer than planned but it was a sweet treat to watch the sun set over the Mediterranean...check out that breathtaking sky...the picture doesn't even do it justice.

Our last night at Ein Gev, we had a bonfire on the beach...and for some reason Dan and Craig wanted a pic of "throwing me into the fire." (?) I don't really know. Don't ask me.

WEDNESDAY: We stopped at a few places on our way from Galilee back to Jerusalem. Our first site was Megiddo, the site of many ancient battles as well as modern wars. In the Bible, it is referred to as Har-Megiddo (meaning Mount Megiddo) or otherwise known as Armageddon. Cool huh? Here I am displaying my horse whispering abilities in Solomon's stables.

Yay for Mt. Carmel! Our class got together and performed a very accurate scriptural rendition of the contest between Elijah and the wicked priests of Baal which occurred atop this very mountain. It was actually very legit...there was even a script and costumes plus props! I felt very honored to be cast as the sacrificial bullock although I think there may have been some typecasting going on....

The last stop was the Templar's cemetery in Haifa. In this German cemetery, there are buried two LDS missionaries as well as the first converts to the Church from the Middle East. One of our professors had done extensive research on one of the missionaries so he had access some of his last journal entries about leaving his family to serve the Lord in foreign Palestine. It was so wonderful to hear about the Church's presence in the Holy Land through a missionary effort....can't wait until it can happen again!